Beta Update - Phases 2 & 3 - One Week Later

Phases 2 & 3 - One Week Later

Hello everyone!

We are now one week into testing for the character builder, digital character sheet, homebrew creation and sharing, and the starting point for campaign management.

Once again, we're overwhelmed and grateful for the participation and huge response. Over 100,000 characters have been created. The feedback has been incredibly valuable and we are taking it very seriously - we want the official toolset to be exactly what the community needs to enhance the D&D experience.

For this initial pass of testing, we were focused on getting your thoughts on the general UI and flow of the new features, and we have definitely accomplished that goal. A few things that we seen prominently in the feedback review for the character builder/ sheet that we are actively working on updating:

Equipment and Spells Management. The UI for both Equipment and Spells management is too clunky and difficult to follow. We completely agree, and we've got some changes coming in the next week or two that should bring big improvements.

Rules Validation/ Assistance. As stated, we wanted to get out the core UI and flow of the builder to see if we're on the right track - no real data validation or rules enforcement was included. We are definitely working on adding that layer in, as you'll see we've already started in the release notes below. We'll definitely iron these out in the coming days.

Flow/ Choice Order. Some players like the current "Step-By-Step" flow that is presented in the Player's Handbook. We get the impression those skew into the "newer player" category, at least slightly. This is good if it means a way to help new players ease into the game. Others (I'm going to go ahead and throw myself into this group) use a different flow that typically means determining ability scores first, followed by race, background, then class and equipment. Some of the issue was the lack of "cascading choices" in the builder, where choosing a proficiency in one place would not remove that skill from other places. We've already started addressing that (see below). Outside of this, there will still be changes that will come in the next few weeks to present an alternate builder flow that we feel will be more useful for seasoned players (or newer players that don't want or need as much assistance in creating a character).

Character Level and Class Levels. The way this is implemented works well on a whiteboard, but is too confusing for actual use. We've got a solution on the way that I feel will drastically improve the issues - standby for that soon.

Those are just some of the major things we're focused on in the next week or two. Plenty more is on the list and we will diligently work through it all to make the toolset better.

Now, I'll share some release notes for what we have added/ updated in the last few days. Changes and updates are happening rapidly, so we'll try to collect as many of the notes as we can and share them in digest format like this between now and launch:

Beta Release Notes July 7, 2017

General

Added all non-Basic Rules/ SRD content into the various listings throughout the site in a locked state. Chromatic Orb can now be seen in the list, but the details will be available at launch.

A negative Dexterity modifier is no longer applied while your character is wearing heavy armor.

Definitely planning on using D&D Beyond for my new campaign! Will updates/fixes to the character builder apply retroactively to already built characters, or will new characters have to be made to incorporate the fixes? For example, will a previously made Monk now have the correct hit die, or will a new Monk need to be created? Thanks!

Definitely planning on using D&D Beyond for my new campaign! Will updates/fixes to the character builder apply retroactively to already built characters, or will new characters have to be made to incorporate the fixes? For example, will a previously made Monk now have the correct hit die, or will a new Monk need to be created? Thanks!

I just tested and the change is applied retroactively, BUT if you have hitpoints set to manual, then they won't be changed.

Thanks for the updates! I am very curious to know what your accessibility plans for the site are. There are a number of simple fixes that can be applied pretty quickly. For example - text color contrast and displaying tab focus.

I love seeing that the equipment/weapons/magic items is getting some attention. I thinks is really important to keep new players in mind for character creation. Maybe add an option(s) for the suggested loadout that is listed in the PHB.

This has such great potential for a tool for help us DMs that bring new players to our hobby!

I love seeing that the equipment/weapons/magic items is getting some attention. I thinks is really important to keep new players in mind for character creation. Maybe add an option(s) for the suggested loadout that is listed in the PHB.

This has such great potential for a tool for help us DMs that bring new players to our hobby!

The Quick Build option from the starting screen actually builds a 1st level character for each class that using all of the suggested "loadouts" in the Player's Hanbook, check that part out.

We also intend to expand the Quick Build method in the future to allow for higher than 1st level. You could choose level 18 paladin and get an "optimized" template of a paladin, with appropriate gear, ability choices, and so on. This is in contrast to the Randomize method, which is completely and totally random.

thank you for the excellent work and the fun we get to use on this site ... I mean I just made a giraffe as a beast :D.

For the Magic Items Expand the tags so it includes classes that can attune or use the items.

include a dice roller in the site just for the lols ... I mean a sight that calls it self dnd without a virtual dice .... come on . 3D is better but you can make a simple Gif animation and the Number result for the roll...

would you add virtual tabletop sitting allas that other popular sight that have a number and an action for its name ... I mean you are gonna crush it if you do so.

Me and my dnd group just started using this and we all agree that it is amazing and makes things so much easier for some of our group to understand what they are doing. that being said, im hoping to see some of the volo's guide races included in this so i can upload my Aasimar pally .

Me and my dnd group just started using this and we all agree that it is amazing and makes things so much easier for some of our group to understand what they are doing. that being said, im hoping to see some of the volo's guide races included in this so i can upload my Aasimar pally .

You'll be able to purchase Volo's Guide content on release.

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